Thursday, 1 January 2015

Wardrobe makeover

I was in a cabinet-making mood today and decided to look at a wardrobe that came with the Tudor house several years ago. All this time it had been in my antique shop, adding to its chaos. It is a smaller scale than 1:12 so I haven't be able to use it, and it is also broken.

For Womble Hall, I need furniture for rear corridors. It doesn't have to be exquisite firniture, but it adds substantionally to the overall look, and I have already tested that scale is not important. In fact, smaller-scale furniture looks better in a rear corridor.

The wardrobe was, as I said, damaged. The back legs were missing, and the front legs were broken.

I know I cannot make turned legs (not yet!), so I decided to remove them altogether. I considered making a low base, but instread used wooden beads that I had used before for furniture legs. They aren't exactly the right style, but who cares! (Well, I do, but I'll have to cope).

I put in a mirror because mirrors always create interesting effects. And I made handles more interesting, attaching tiny metal beads with Very Small Craft Dots (that's what they are called). One or perhaps three drawers are missing, but I will pretend that it is part of the design and fill the holes with something.

Something like this. There will be lights in the corridor, but at the moment I had to take the picture with flash.

Obviously, the room is not finished: the panel on the right-hand wall is missing, as is the door frame, and there will of course be railings for the stairs. But I think the wardrobe looks good there, and the scale doesn't matter. Mind, I may move it around many times before I am happy.